Support him in his questioning and begin to look for ways that allow him to figure these things out on his own. In other words, don’t always be the one providing answers but the one who helps figure out how to answer the questions.
At 7 years old, I would say you don’t need to worry about using “his curiosity in a way that benefits him” because merely having curiosity is a huge benefit. In my experience teaching college students, I saw so many students who completely lacked that curiosity. I’m sure most of them had it at your son's age and it was slowly discouraged out of them. Whatever you do, allow the curiosity to flourish and support it. Depending on his interest, there are several good books available that might be helpful. There’s an entire series titled “I Wonder Why…” For example, one is titled I Wonder Why Pyramids Were Built and Other Questions About Ancient Egypt. There’s another book titled Big Questions From Little People: And Simple Answers From Great Minds that he might like. For questions like how 911 works, why not take him to a fire station or police station? Many of them welcome young kids and are happy to show them around. Depending on where you’re located, there are also good museums (we have an excellent hands-on science center nearby) that you can take him to. For kids that age the more hands-on the experience the better. You might see if his questioning leads to some interest in philosophical questions. There are good resources here as well (which I am familiar with as a philosophy professor) such as David White’s books Philosophy for Kids and The Examined Life. Several activity books focus on experiments that he might be interested in. If you have a good library nearby use that as a resource for those kinds of books and other kinds as well. On the subject of books, be sure you continue reading to him (if he would like that). Many studies show that parents stop reading to their kids too soon; usually, once they can read on their own. But, many kids would love to have reading continue. Make your investigations of his questions a team effort. Take an interest in the questions he is asking, suggest possible ways to approach answering them, suggest new directions for the questioning to go, and discover the answers together. There are also a few websites he might like including: The Kid Should See This | Smart videos for curious minds of all ages: Science, art, nature, animals, space, technology, DIY, food, music, animation, and more Open Culture - The Best Free Cultural and Educational Media on the Web. Are there any lessons to be learned from Star Wars? To paraphrase Yoda, "Much you can learn." The Jedi Mind contains a number of short chapters each of which discuses a lesson you can learn from one of the characters in Star Wars as well as a practice which goes with that lesson. Some example lessons include Listen illustrated by Lyra Erso. The practice is to listen mindfully to a piece of music you have never heard before. Another lesson from Yoda is to accept failure.
Qui-Gon Jin teaches us to focus, Obi-Wan Kenobi teaches us to open our minds, Mal Kanata helps us learn to "look inward," and Ahsoka Tano helps us cultivate gratitude. Like all great stories, Star Wars can offer many life lessons if you know how to look for them. This little book shows just how much power the Force can have in the ordinary world. On this May the Fourth, "May the Force be with you!" A2A on Quora:
I think an important, and sometimes overlooked, reason for lifelong learning is the reason that Richard Feynman gave: “the pleasure of finding things out.” As long as you’re here you might as well have some enjoyable, fulfilling experiences. Learning is one of those. Or it can be if you approach it in the right way. Of course, lifelong learning will also have immense practical value as well. Pretty much any career you go into is going to require you to keep up with the knowledge in your field. That will require lifelong learning. The more you learn the more you will be able to connect your knowledge in unique and innovative ways. This will set you apart from many of your peers who only view learning as something to be done in the classroom and then get on with living. Learn things that will benefit you that others will not take the time and effort to learn. That will also distinguish you. You’re here for a limited amount of time. While you’re here take the time to be helpful to others in any way you can. One way to increase your helpfulness is to continue learning. It will make you more helpful, unique, more enjoyable to talk with, and perhaps even more attractive to a prospective partner. All good reasons to keep learning. Do you believe everything should be structured in a child's life or should they have free time?4/29/2022
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Regardless of what I or anyone else believes what you should be interested in is what the best evidence shows. That evidence seems to indicate that not everything in a child’s life should be structured. There should be plenty of time for free play, even as the child gets older. There are several good resources on this subject which I will list below. What developmental psychologists recognize is that free play is an important part of the growing and learning process. Just as importantly, research now seems to show that over-scheduling with kids has many of the same effects we see in adults: stress, anxiety, and unhappiness. But, in kids, these effects can be even more pronounced. In the race to help our children succeed we are doing many things that are often developmentally inappropriate. Training children to read early, learn how to multiply, divide, compute, white papers, and more seem to have short-term benefits. But, many of these are overshadowed by longer-term problems. In addition, the short-term benefits often erode over time, and kids who seem to be far ahead early end up roughly where their peers are at later. Of course, learning and structured activities are good for kids but they need to be developmentally appropriate and, in the case of extracurricular activities, they should be chosen by the kids not forced by the parents for the sake of advancement or other lessons that can be learned. Kids enjoy free time. It allows them to be creative, think, learn, and develop. So, just as important as enjoyment, kids need free time. Develop and learning are not usually linear actives. There will be spurts of growth and learning. Sometimes, it will seem as if nothing is happening. It’s at periods like that when parents often begin to push structure fearing that a lack of structure means a lack of learning and development. But, what is going on just below the surface during these unstructured times is important and necessary. Here are a few good books that outline the latest findings regarding these issues: Peter Gray Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life Angela Hanscomb Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children Stuart Brown Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul A2A on Quora
One of the most useful skills to have is the ability to learn something on your own. Often, schools do not teach this skill. Instead, teachers assume that students either know how to learn or can figure it out. Schools should be in the business of developing self-teaching as a skill. When you graduate you should not see that as the end of your schooling and learning as many students do, but instead you should believe that you have been sufficiently prepared to be able to learn for yourself. But, usually, it takes some insight and deliberate practice in order to be able to self-teach. Fortunately, there are resources available that can help. There are a number of books available which discuss how people learn and also provide specific skills in order to improve your ability to self-learn. Some excellent resources would include the following books: Benedict Carey How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why it Happens Michael Syed Black Box Thinking: Why Some People Never Learn From Their Mistakes Tom Vanderbilt Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning Blake Boles The Art of Self-Directed Learning: 23 Tips for Giving Yourself an Unconventional Education Guy Claxton Wise Up: The Challenge of Lifelong Learning Ellen Langer The Power of Mindful Learning Asked to answer on Quora.com
It is not weird, though it seems to be increasingly uncommon. But, some people share your passion and it is easier than ever to engage with them and satisfy your passion for learning with several internet resources, discussion groups, and books. As an educator, I can say that over 20 years of teaching I saw a true passion for learning in no more than a dozen people. Unfortunately, most students I saw looked upon learning as something to be endured to get a degree, get a real job, get on with living, and stop all the learning already! That is an attitude you may have run into. But, don’t let it stop you from being true to your passion and your interests. You are the direct beneficiary of your learning and those who are your closest friends will also benefit. You’ll be a better conversationalist, more empathetic, more engaging, more alive, and a deeper person for all your learning. Keep it up! Asked to answer on Quora.com
My guess that this is a small percentage. I say this based on the fact that many people who have education degrees are trained to have a very conventional outlook on education and what is required for education to happen. So, learning outcomes are important, assessment is important, rubrics are important. But, learning is not just quantitative and fully measurable. Learning is not about outcomes it’s about communication and helping students see and feel the world around them in different ways. Unfortunately, the pressure right now is increasingly on documenting and complying. In higher education, this means documenting learning outcomes and complying with accreditation agencies. While this is not the direct intention, focusing on these things crowds out genuine teaching. In John Kay's excellent book Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly, he discusses the notion that for many of our ultimate aims the best way to achieve them is not to aim directly at them. Right now, this is radically different than how we think of learning and education. We currently discount the potential benefits of learning for the sake of learning in favor of the direct, tangible benefits of the degree, the certificate, the job. What would things look like if we stopped focusing on these outcomes directly and began focusing on learning? Unschooling already recognizes this notion of indirect learning. By focusing on the interests of the student instead of the curriculum, unschoolers end up with a richer, deeper educational experience while seemingly breaking all the rules regarding what counts as learning. No assessments, no rubrics, no learning outcomes. Instead, genuine life experiences and these lead, often indirectly, to learning. Applying this to college gets interesting. There is a still small, but growing, movement that is making the argument that there might be the same benefits to “uncollege” as there are to unschooling. But, as Kevin Carey points out in his book The End of College, many in academia are currently in denial about the disruption that is already happening in higher education. Or, which is just as bad, they aren’t even aware of what is happening. But, while many in academia are only dimly aware of the changes and possibilities, there is a growing body of literature that is making the case for unschooling. And, there’s a growing cohort that is living this life now. This brings up an interesting question: Will unschoolers be open to leaving their autonomy and interest-led learning behind to enroll in a conventional college to earn a conventional four-year degree and come out in debt and not necessarily better off in terms of job prospects? To the unschoolers who are reaching college age I would ask them: Would you take that deal? I think that as the cohort of unschoolers continues to grow they could be the trigger for major changes in how we do higher education in this country. This change will be brought about in one of several ways. Unschoolers could force changes to occur within the academy because the academy realizes that unschoolers won't enroll without these changes being made. Unschoolers could force changes by refusing to enroll and costing colleges a large amount of tuition money which will force change. At this point, I'm betting on the second option. Skeptics will ask: But what about employers who demand a college degree. To that, I think the college-age unschoolers will have two great responses. 1. Look at the motivation and drive I have demonstrated in crafting my DIY degree from scholars all around the country. I have created a strong coherent learning portfolio available online and certified by Open Badges and recommendations. I have helped run small businesses with my family, traveled to learn from others, volunteered extensively. Your other job candidates just graduated from a conventional four-year college with a degree. How special is that? 2. OK. You don't want to hire me that's fine. I'll start my own business to compete with you! Thanks! Here are some interesting books in addition to the ones mentioned above: Hacking Your Education by Dale Stephens Better Than College by Blake Boles Unschooling Rules by Clark Aldrich DIY U by Anya Kamenetz The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn Asked to answer on Quora.com
Could be many reasons but I think one is the fear of anything done independently without formal certification of bureaucracy attached to it. The current direction in education, as in health care, is to turn providers into bureaucrats. In education, this is done through accreditation and the pressure to comply with that dominates many discussions in higher education. At this point though self-education, through various means such as homeschooling, unschooling, and other independent learning, is growing in popularity and the results are quite positive. The worry may come when society decides to be in favor of self-education. This will likely be when someone wants to create oversight so that the success that has come about through self-education can be furthered or brought to more people. But, it is like killing the good that laid the golden egg. The success is due, in large part, to freedom and independence. Once those elements are lost, for whatever well-intentioned reasons, self-education will become bureaucratic education with all the attendant problems that entails. So, don’t look upon society’s scorn as a problem. As long as laws in most states stay fairly relaxed about self-education individuals will be free to engage in learning in any number of ways that will benefit them. Do you believe homeschooling is a good option to prepare your children for the adult world?3/29/2021
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Yes, for several reasons: It focuses on real learning as opposed to preparing for exams. So much of the school work is done in the service of exam preparation. It makes it seem that the only reason for learning anything is to take an exam. This often deadens learning for students. It preserves curiosity. Closely connected to the first point, homeschooling leaves room for students to remain curious. All kids begin with a vibrant sense of curiosity about the world. Homeschooling does little to crush this. Homeschooling emphasizes that one of the most important reasons to learn is for its own sake. Or, as the physicist Richard Feynman put it, for "the pleasure of finding things out." It allows for flexibility. If a homeschooled child is really into doing some writing you don’t have to stop and say “Time for math now, put away your writing.” No, you can go with the flow and allow kids to dig deeper into subjects or activities. It connects learning with life. Learning can occur in the classroom, but school sometimes gives the impression that learning can only occur in the classroom and that is not true. Homeschooling allows opportunities for learning wherever they appear in life: at the grocery, driving in the car, exploring nature, going to the bank, the post office, or anywhere. It is social in a real-world way. One big question people often ask about homeschooled kids is “What about socialization?” As if school is the place for this. But, school socialization is, like much of school, artificial. Where else in real life will you only socialize with people your age? Homeschooling presents opportunities to socialize in the real world with a wide variety of people, younger and older than you. Homeschooling allows for flexible education in general. Finally, homeschooling recognizes that people are different and learn in different ways. There’s no reason to think that every six years must be able to do the same things or know the same things. Some kids learn things faster and others slower. People have different preferences, aptitudes, and goals. Homeschooling accommodates those by allowing individual families the flexibility to provide learning for their kids in the best way for them. Albert Einstein once said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Academia is currently in the midst of a great deal of change and, I fear, they won’t be able to adapt to this change without an infusion of ideas from outside the academy. Here are some important books that might provide some new useful ideas.
Drive by Daniel Pink: This book discusses motivation and illustrates the importance of cultivating intrinsic motivation as opposed to external motivation. As educators, we need to recognize the importance of tapping into what are intrinsic motivations for our students as well as ourselves. The external motivation of grades, test results, and outcomes will not be sufficient to motivate students for long-term lifelong learning. To help students with that educators will have to tap into intrinsic motivation. Uprising by Scott Goodson: This book is about “movement marketing” and addresses how the formation of movements can lead to important changes in society as a whole and what can be done to foster these movements. Education reform has now taken on the form of just such a cultural movement and colleges have a role to play but only if they understand what is going on in the broader movement of education reform and recognize how to positively embrace these changes. The Seven-Day Weekend by Ricardo Semler: Semler is the leader of a revolutionary company called Semco. Their organization and company policies often fly in the face of conventional wisdom about how a company should be run and how much autonomy employees should have. Semler epitomizes the idea that we need new thinking to solve old problems. As he puts it, there's "something fundamental about organizations and … leadership that makes it almost impossible for people inside a business to change their industry.” To be educational leaders in the coming years, colleges and universities are going to have to embrace ideas outside of their domain. Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton: This may seem a surprising book to recommend to educators but his chapter on education is well worth reading and understanding. As de Botton puts it educators have premised their activity on the flawed notion that simply telling students something through a lecture once in their late teens and early twenties will have long-lasting educational value. As de Botton points out, there's a great difference between a sermon and a lecture! Religions realize that to truly educate people you need ritual, repetition, and emphasis on the practical value of lessons. While educators often give lip service to these, they are not as good about practicing them. Educators could learn a lot from preachers and priests about how to administer lessons! It's often easy to dismiss ideas from those who are not experts in your field. But, ignoring useful insights from outside one's discipline can turn out to be short-sighted and blinding. There are many, many good works being published that could offer new ideas and ways of thinking about what we, as educators, do in the classroom. |